Consumer information is widely available, and various organizations capture, store, and sometimes resell such information. The escalation of security breaches involving personally identifiable information (PII) has contributed to the loss of millions of records over the past few years. Such security breaches involving PII may be hazardous both to individuals and to organizations. Individual harms may include identity theft, embarrassment, blackmail, damage to personal credit ratings, and so on. Organizational harms may include a loss of public trust, legal liability, remediation costs, and so on.
The term “PII data” as used herein refers to any information about an individual that may be maintained by an entity, including any information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual's identity, such as name, social security number, date and place of birth, mother's maiden name, biometric records, and the like. Further, the term “PII data” as used herein may include any other information that can be linked to an individual, including medical data, educational data, financial data, employment data, salary data, other information, or any combination thereof. Examples of the PII data may include, but are not limited to, the individual's name data, including the full name, maiden name, mother's maiden name, or alias; the individual's personal identification number, such as social security number (SSN), passport number, driver's license number, taxpayer identification number, financial account number, or credit card number; the individual's address information, such as street address, work address, or email address; information identifying property owned by the individual, such as vehicle registration number or title number and related information; the individual's personal characteristics, including photographic images (including the individual's face or other identifying characteristic(s)), fingerprints, handwriting, or other biometric data (e.g., retina scan, voice signature, facial geometry, and the like); and information about the individual that may be linked to one of the above (e.g., date of birth, place of birth, race, religion, weight, activities, geographical indicators, employment information, medical information, education information, financial information).